The Book of Acts and other documents describing the early church are full of the language of unity and community. We know that unity is the heart of Christ – he prays in John 17 that the world will know [God the Father] by the unity that it sees among his own followers. We have spent time loving our neighbors this summer – and this must continue. We spend time loving our God through worship and gospel centered living.
As we continue to love our God and love our neighbor, we want to focus on loving each other as well. We want to eat together and work together and serve and pray and fast and take communion together. We want to do life together. What good would it be to attract 300 people to Mystery if we aren’t actively being the body of Christ to each other? How can we reach the city with the gospel if we’re not unified as one body through the gospel?
This month, we’re going to try to do two things: Eat together, and Pray together.
First, invite people into your homes – the neighbors you’ve spoken to but never spent time with, friends and new visitors from Mystery- Eat together and Enjoy each other.
Second, invite Mystery members over specifically to pray together – Pray for people to invite, Pray for our Outreach push into the fall, for the baptism celebration and cookout coming in August, for our city, for the men and women of Joplin, for the church of Joplin, for Mystery, for our pastor and our leaders, for unity and outreach.
Don’t wait for someone to ask you - it can be uncomfortable, but its powerful – and even more than that, it’s critical. Let’s be the church – the priesthood of all believers – that meets together, eats together, prays together, studies together, confesses sin, and shows the world the love of Christ by our love for one another and the unity within His church.